Court of the AfD - Deputy Matthias Helferich allegedly threatened party friends
It has been half a year since the AfD in North Rhine-Westfalen sent Bundestag representative Matthias Helferich as a deputy in their state executive committee. The election was a declaration of delegates to the man who once referred to himself as the "friendly face of NS," or National Socialism. Helferich, 35, is deeply connected in the AfD, in the youth wing "Junge Alternative" as well as in Björn Höcke's camp.
A few months after his election, a majority in the state executive committee voted to expel Helferich from the party. At the end of May, the state executive committee filed a corresponding motion with the State Disciplinary Court and also requested that the court confirm that Helferich may not exercise his membership rights. The party court has now done so. The decision on the party expulsion is still pending.
AfD Disciplinary Court: Migrants "apparently equated with cattle"
The ruling of the State Disciplinary Court, which has nine pages and is available to stern, accuses Helferich of various offenses. One of them concerns an Instagram post. The Bundestag representative published a photo of a rearview mirror sign with the quote "Get rid of the scum" and the words "Super" and "#remigration".
The Disciplinary Court assesses the post unequivocally: "The connection of the slogan 'Get rid of the scum' with the term 'remigration' shows an attitude of extreme dehumanization of migrants, who apparently are equated with cattle." In colloquial language, the word cattle is used "derogatorily for an animal."
The AfD Disciplinary Court also accuses Helferich of having positioned himself behind two AfD colleagues on social media network X. These colleagues had publicly expressed, according to the Disciplinary Court, that persons of Turkish and Yezidi origin could not become Germans. By doing so, they allegedly violated the Basic Law and the fundamental program of the AfD. Helferich, it continues, adopted these views, although he as a member of the state executive committee knew that an expulsion proceeding had been initiated against these party members.
"Threat scenarios" against party friends
The largest section in the Disciplinary Court ruling is what the two judges refer to as "real or indirect/subtle threat scenarios against party members." Helferich creates "threat scenarios," has repeatedly and deliberately "placed false or perceived missteps of other party members," and did so "to exert pressure."
In its ruling, the Disciplinary Court provides several examples, and the first one goes deep into the power dynamics of the largest state association of the AfD. In Duisburg, the Duisburg Andreas Laasch, chief of the membership-strong AfD district Duesseldorf, wields an increasingly greater influence. The Spiegel reported in 2019 that Laasch's name appeared in documents from the extreme right-wing Neo-Nazi Party FAP in the 1990s. The FAP people from Duisburg wanted to go to a counter-demonstration against a May Day demonstration in Dortmund to "show the left pack that we won't give them the streets." For "vehicle 5," it was also reportedly registered in the document as "Andreas Laasch."
Laasch had denied any contact with the FAP at the time, stating that "it could only be a forgery."
In June 2024, after Andreas Laasch was elected as the Bezirks chairman of the AfD, Matthias Helferich spoke out on the platform X. He congratulated Laasch and wrote that the AfD state chairman Martin Vincentz and the federal chairman Tino Chrupalla had "a good networker – with excellent contacts to the old right and a V-man."
"Excellent contacts to the old right," to which the long-banned FAP certainly also belonged: If Helferich is not a leaker, he therefore possesses insider knowledge about Laasch's past. According to the Landesschiedsgericht, Helferich "boasted of having knowledge about the witness Laasch's past." And he used "these or other supposed knowledge" to make a threat on X, addressing Laasch directly: "I wouldn't exaggerate it if I were you. You know your environment and your past best."
The court is assuming a "punishable formal insult"
In January 2024, Helferich made a comment about an AfD woman from NRW in a WhatsApp group, who had represented her party for years in an exposed position. The Schiedsgericht is now also dealing with this case. The plaintiff, as he is called in the ruling, boasted of "having knowledge about a supposed activity of the party member (...) in the past, by stating that he defended their activity as a whore and by saying: 'Your new hygiene, which stands out particularly for you as a former prostitute ...'".
The Landesschiedsrichter seem to trust Helferich to some extent. In this case, they are of the opinion that "at least a punishable formal insult" is to be assumed. And it is also "in the room that the plaintiff intends to use this supposed knowledge from the past of (...) to their disadvantage at an appropriate time."
"Best contacts to Putin's Night Wolves and the eastern Ukrainian republics"
To the former AfD Bundestag candidate Henning Zoz, an entrepreneur from South Westphalia, Helferich wrote on X in June 2024: "best contacts to Putin's Night Wolves and the eastern Ukrainian republics." According to the AfD Schiedsgericht, he did this "to damage Zoz's reputation." Helferich disregarded the fact that the party member Zoz, as an entrepreneur, had business relationships in the Ukrainian eastern regions and had to move on sensitive terrain.
The judges recognize in such sentences of Helferich's the intention "to put pressure on party members or their employees with irrelevant events or activities from their past." Helferich, in turn, has rejected the allegations. He defended himself "mainly with extensive knowledge of factual or supposed misconduct by the witnesses or people in their environment."
Helferich also pointed out that it was forbidden to restrict intraparty opinion-making. This defense line seems to be supported by the Hocke faction. Thuringia Landtag deputy Torben Braga, formerly Hocke's spokesperson and still his deputy as chief of the Thuringian AfD, wrote in mid-June 2024 on X, had he commented on Helferich, "only in the following sense: Based on what I know, the ongoing PAV (Party Expulsion Procedure, the Editor) against Helferich will lead to or result in a significant restriction of intraparty democracy. That is already a violation of the AfD statute & therefore to be rejected as unacceptable."
At the moment, Matthias Helferich apparently stands alone.
Correction: In an earlier version of this text, it was stated that the Disciplinary Court had confirmed Helferich's expulsion. That was an error. With its decision, the Disciplinary Court confirmed that Helferich may not exercise his membership rights. The expulsion ruling is still pending. We have corrected the corresponding sections and apologize for the error.
The Disciplinary Court's ruling against Bjorn Hoecke's ally Matthias Helferich includes a critique of an Instagram post in which Helferich appeared to equate migrants with cattle. The court also accused Helferich of aligning himself with AfD colleagues who had violated the Basic Law and the party's fundamental program by dehumanizing people of Turkish and Yezidi origin. Moreover, the court deemed Helferich responsible for creating "threat scenarios" against party members, using misinformation to exert pressure.
